This invention relates to systems for tracking items susceptible to numeric measurement, and more particularly to a personal financial tracking system and method.
A particular application for which this invention is well suited is that of monitoring expenses by persons who are not accounting professionals.
Many individuals and households have the need and desire to achieve some measure of control over their fiscal affairs. It can be quite difficult to achieve financial goals without having a measure of expenditures.
The task of manually keeping track of expenses is a daunting one for many people, since it requires organizational as well as mathematical skills. This has led, with the advent of the personal computer, toward computer programs for home accounting.
There are a myriad of computerized systems now available for keeping accounts and books. Some are adapted for use on personal computers for maintaining checking account balances, and include expense categories to which particular expenses, when so designated, will be assigned. Problems associated with these computerized systems include the need to learn how to use the system as well as the computer on which the system is to run, and the fact that the user must have access to the computer to update the records. Another problem with such computerized systems is the absence of a pictorial presentation showing how much money has been spent or is remaining in relation to a particular length of time that has expired or is still remaining, i.e. how much money and how much month is left. For many people, the time and effort needed to learn a new system outweighs the perceived benefit of tracking personal expenses and accounts, and it is difficult to maintain such a system over an extended time period.
There is therefor a need for a simplified technique for tracking expenses, which is not computationally intensive, presents real time information that is easy to understand and analyze, and which does not require expertise in accounting principles.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a device is described for selectively tracking expenditures against a total monetary amount. The device includes a support having a plurality of response areas for presenting information for selection, and printing indicative of one or more discrete monetary amounts, each amount a small fraction of the total monetary amount as a discrete budget unit. The printing is fixed to the support within each response area. The plurality of response areas and the printing are arranged on the support in a distributed fashion such that the aggregate of the representations of the discrete monetary amounts equals the total monetary amount. The arrangement of the printing and response areas provides a visual representation of the total monetary amount as a distribution of discrete monetary amounts. Expenditure amounts are tracked by canceling, for each expenditure amount, a corresponding amount of the discrete printed representations to approximate the expenditure amount. The number of non-canceled representations provides a visual indication of the amount of funds remaining for expenditure, and the number of canceled representations provides a visual indication of the amount of funds expended. The representations are evenly distributed over an area allocated to a particular time period, e.g. a month, to allow for a visual comparison of the canceled representations in relation to the time period.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method is described for tracking monetary expenditures, comprising:
determining a budgeted total monetary amount for a predetermined time interval;
fixing one or more discrete monetary amounts, each of which is a small fraction of the budgeted total monetary amount as a discrete budget unit;
arranging a plurality of representations of the one or more discrete monetary amounts in a distributed fashion on a medium such that the aggregate of the representations equals the. budgeted total monetary amount, wherein the arrangement of the representations provides a visual representation of the budgeted total monetary amount as a distribution of discrete monetary amounts; and
tracking a plurality of expenditure amounts by canceling, for each expenditure amount, a corresponding amount of the representations to approximate the expenditure amount, wherein the number of non-canceled representations provides a visual indication of the amount of funds remaining for expenditure, and the number of canceled representations provides a visual indication of the amount of funds expended.
The device and method can also be used to track amounts which have been saved.